Letters to the Editor: President and Congress must take on NRA, anti-gun folks put nation at risk, and more

The National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre pauses as he makes a statement during a news conference in response to the Connecticut school shooting on Dec. 21 in Washington. Associated Press / Evan Vucci

Ff the shooting that tore the heart out of Newtown, Conn. and the entire nation didn’t do the same to most who are “pro gun,” it should have. And if it didn’t tear the heart out of the argument that there’s an across-the-board need for high capacity, semi-automatic, rifles in the gun-toting community, it should have too.

In the aftermath, we now hear the usual call that more needs to be done for the mentally ill or that it’s a societal problem – and that’s true. But are they really the main causes at the heart of the issue and should they be of the most immediate concern?

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post writes, “There are perhaps 270 million guns in America and more than 11 million people who suffered from severe mental illness in the last year. Yet the violence produced at this intersection is relatively small. The mentally ill account for 3 to 5 percent of violent crimes. The toll of mass killings in the U.S. – those involving four or more victims- averages about 160 a year.”

The mentally ill have been with us forever, assault weapons have not. We also hear the calls that now is the time for armed guards at every school. A great idea, but is it really practical, is it something that could actually happen in the near term? And where does it end? Do we then guard every house of worship, supermarket, theater, restaurant?

Like it or not, it still boils down to the availability of these weapons. E.J. Dionne again of the Post, makes some key points. “How often must we note that no other developed country has such massacres on a regular basis because no other comparable nation allows such easy access to guns? And on no subject other than ungodly episodes involving guns are those who respond logically by demanding solutions accused of “politicizing tragedy.” Sadly there is no “silver lining” for those who lost loved ones in Newtown.

Perhaps however, there can be in the gun debate. The National Rifle Association has again let it be known, that they will be of no use in helping with any sensible reform. That being the case, President Obama and Congress need to use the opportunity born of this tragedy to snowplow the “gun lobby” and its thinking, to the side of the road and get on with it themselves. 

- DOUG CESAN, Agawam

Anti-gun folks put nation at risk

I can not help but agree with National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre that, at this point in time, the only way that will assure success in keeping our schools safe is armed intervention. However with anti-gun sentiment so fervent and an administration hell bent on disarming the people of the United States, it is almost a sure bet total confiscation is all but a few pen strokes away. Then and only then will we realize what – as the populace of many dictatorial regimes realized – we have lost.

Those in the mainstream media, except Fox News, have already sold their souls and objectivity to the left-wing ideology so determined to bring down our country. 

- ROBERT MENARD, Chicopee

World as we know it in very grave danger

There are many of us who hope that 12/21/12 didn’t mean the end of the world, but the dawn of a new consciousness. Right now our profit-motivated society is programmed for self-destruction.

Because it is vastly more profitable to burn fossil fuels than to take on a huge space race style initiative to bring down carbon levels in the atmosphere, this planet will be uninhabitable by the turn of the century. There will be more and more gun massacres because there is too much money to be made on automatic weapons. With the medical and the financial rackets salivating over our Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid dollars, I expect to see the elderly and disabled hung out to dry. We’ll see more horrific factory fires like the one in Bangladesh as companies squeeze profits on the backs of workers. As long as the military industrial complex is our number one industry, there will be no end to the endless wars that feed their coffers. There will be more Fukishimas, more Sandy’s, more Monson tornadoes because money is our God, and our priorities are completely upside down.

It’s hard to elect decent folks who will do what’s right, because the system’s rigged for those with the campaign contributions. Even the “progressives” we supposedly elect are dropping drones, talking about “entitlement” cuts, voting for wars and Patriot Acts. The fast track we’re on is heading us straight for the cliff, and not the fiscal one.

Let’s hope and pray the Mayan New Creation we’re in means that we, as a species, grow up and start living for what’s truly important, treating each other, other living things and our planet with respect and dignity. Otherwise it’s Game Over! 